After the immense worldwide stupidity that characterized World War I, or as the Germans called it Happyfunundplayinghuhr, the various combatant nations decided to take a breather. Because World War I had been largely characterized by trench warfare, the only ones actually killed were those retarded enough to actually stand up and wave at the opposing machine guns. Their removal from the gene pool wasn't entirely a bad thing, and most people at the time believed the war was doing us all a favor.